According witnesses, the guerrillas forced their way into the mosque where celebrating people gathered to commemorate a ritual but met with force, leading to all out violence.

At least seven people, including two Shabaabs were reportedly killed in the clashes and 13 others injured, said an eyewitness.

Sheikh Abdirahman Hassan Hussein, an Al-Shabaab official in Lower Shabelle confirmed the attack at the mosque, claiming that the people were ‘apostates’ who gathered to do un-Islamic ritual.

The killings are inline with hostilities between Al-Shabaab, who prophesise Wahabism and Sufi group Ahlu- Sunna Wal-Jamaa in the central and southern regions of the war-torn country.